January 12, 2016 — U.S. boats are set to be locked out of the world’s best tuna-fishing waters after reneging on a deal with 17 Pacific states, amid a slump in prices for the fish sold in cans in supermarkets all over the country.

The standoff means U.S. boats cannot access seas where around half of the world’s skipjack tuna are caught each year. It is also endangering a vital revenue stream for some of the world’s poorest nations.

A group of Pacific island states—which includes small islands and atolls such as Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Marshall Islands—along with New Zealand and Australia are refusing to issue fishing licenses to around 36 U.S. vessels to trawl in their waters after their owners, typically tuna-supply companies or individuals, refused to meet payments agreed in August last year.

“These are the most attractive fisheries in the world and there are boats dying to fish in these waters right now but they can’t go and fish,” said Transform Aqorau, chief executive officer of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a grouping of eight of the islands which control most of the regions’ best fishing grounds.

January 7, 2016 — Though there appears to be no immediate end in sight to a dispute over unpaid fees for fishing access that has seen the US tuna fleet grounded in the Pacific, one thing is clear: the parties involved agree that the existing treaty should be renegotiated in favor of a more flexible, permanent solution.

In statements to Undercurrent News, US State Department and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), which manages access to the tuna fishery, both said they see serious issues with the existing system and would like to see reforms to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty.

“Longer-term, we are increasingly concerned about whether the treaty can remain operationally viable and believe a new approach is required,” a State Department spokeswoman wrote in a statement to Undercurrent.

She added that the US has told the PNA that it is weighing a pull out from the existing arrangement.

“The United States previously informed Pacific island parties that it was considering the possibility of withdrawal from the treaty as the terms offered in negotiations continued to deteriorate and commercial differences threatened to negatively affect our positive cooperation with the region,” the spokeswoman said.